Intentions to Marry, 1916 Rangiora to Chatham Islands

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840468, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1916 is bound in six volumes (a to f) with continuous page numbers. Each volume contains a different set of districts, going from north to south.

1916f contains pages 2397-3014, covering districts from Rangiora to Chatham Islands

Page 2910

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 30 June 1916 Registrar J. L. Petri

Date of Notice

Names and Surnames of Parties

BDM Match

Condition

Calling or Profession

Age

Dwelling Place

Length of Residence

Marriage Place

Folio

Consent

Date of Certificate

Officiating Minister

2 May 1916

Albert Leonard Turner
Ivy Hazel Maude Lethaby

Albert Leonard Turner
Ivy Hazel Maude Lethaby
💍 1916/6923

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway employee
Domestic

24
20

Invercargill
Invercargill

4 months
20 years

Methodist Church Don St Invercargill

4416

Thomas Lethaby, father

2 May 1916

Rev. S. Henderson

No	77
Date of Notice	2 May 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Leonard Turner	Ivy Hazel Maude Lethaby
	💍 1916/6923
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway employee	Domestic
Age	24	20
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	4 months	20 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Don St Invercargill
Folio	4416
Consent	Thomas Lethaby, father
Date of Certificate	2 May 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. Henderson

8 May 1916

Herbert Victor Mark Daughtery
Jessie Ellen Rogers

Hubert Victor Mark Slaughter
Jessie Ellen Rogers
💍 1916/6929

Bachelor
Spinster

Fireman NZR
Domestic

25
20

Invercargill
Invercargill

1 year
Life

English Church Taylor St Invercargill

4421

James Rogers, father

8 May 1916

Rev. Fynes-Clinton

No	78
Date of Notice	8 May 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Victor Mark Daughtery	Jessie Ellen Rogers
BDM Match (91%)	Hubert Victor Mark Slaughter	Jessie Ellen Rogers
	💍 1916/6929
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fireman NZR	Domestic
Age	25	20
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	1 year	Life
Marriage Place	English Church Taylor St Invercargill
Folio	4421
Consent	James Rogers, father
Date of Certificate	8 May 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. Fynes-Clinton

15 May 1916

Francis William Pready
Lucy Frances Stapley

Francis William Preddy
Lucy Frances Stapley
💍 1916/6924

Widower
Spinster

Draper
Domestic

45
25

Invercargill
Invercargill

9 years
7 months

Residence of Francis W. Pready Yarrow St Invercargill

4417

15 May 1916

Rev. S. Henderson

No	79
Date of Notice	15 May 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis William Pready	Lucy Frances Stapley
BDM Match (98%)	Francis William Preddy	Lucy Frances Stapley
	💍 1916/6924
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Draper	Domestic
Age	45	25
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	9 years	7 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Francis W. Pready Yarrow St Invercargill
Folio	4417
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 May 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. Henderson

17 May 1916

Charles Ernest Christian Myers
Lydia Jane Cunningham

Charles Ernest Christian Ingers
Lydia Jane Cunningham
💍 1916/6925

Bachelor
Spinster

Brick-maker
Domestic

23
19

Invercargill
Invercargill

23 years
16 years

English Church Gladstone Invercargill

4418

John Cunningham, father

17 May 1916

Rev. G. Fynes-Clinton

No	80
Date of Notice	17 May 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Ernest Christian Myers	Lydia Jane Cunningham
BDM Match (95%)	Charles Ernest Christian Ingers	Lydia Jane Cunningham
	💍 1916/6925
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Brick-maker	Domestic
Age	23	19
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	23 years	16 years
Marriage Place	English Church Gladstone Invercargill
Folio	4418
Consent	John Cunningham, father
Date of Certificate	17 May 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Fynes-Clinton

20 May 1916

Alexander Sutherland
Ellen Watt

Alexander Sutherland
Ellen Watt
💍 1916/6928

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

23
24

Kennington Invercargill
Kennington Invercargill

23 years
3 months

Presbyterian Church Tay St Invercargill

4420

20 May 1916

Rev. R. M. Ryburn

No	81
Date of Notice	20 May 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Sutherland	Ellen Watt
	💍 1916/6928
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	23	24
Dwelling Place	Kennington Invercargill	Kennington Invercargill
Length of Residence	23 years	3 months
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Tay St Invercargill
Folio	4420
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 May 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. M. Ryburn

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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What is an Intention to Marry?

The 1854 Marriage Act required Pakeha settlers (and later Maori) to register their intention to marry from 1855. The resulting Notices of intention to marry were sent by the district registrars to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and bound into large volumes, each containing a year of notices. These registers were eventually deposited with Archives New Zealand.

What information does an ItM record?

A typical Intention to Marry notice records:

the bride and groom's full names
occupation of the groom (and sometimes the bride)
their ages
district where the marriage would take place
how long they had resided in the district
Where the marriage would take place (eg, a specific church)
Who would officiate the marriage (eg, a minister)
The date of the notice and also a date when the certificate was issued. Marriages had to take place within 3 months, and usually occurred within a week or so of the certificate date.
If one of the parties was under 21, a parent who consented to their marriage was usually specified

These details can provide clues for genealogical and historical research. Knowing the date and district makes it easier to look for wedding notices in Papers Past, and the amount of time that the parties had resided in a district can offer clues to whether a person was born in NZ, or when they immigrated.

However, finding individual records in the Intentions to Marry registers was typically a slow and manual process, usually requiring an in-person visit to Archives NZ's Wellington office (during limited opening hours) and using a handwritten card catalogue index to look up individual names.

Eight years of the registers had been digitised by Archives NZ prior to 2024, but even these digital versions required the use of a manual index and usually examining several pages to locate specific records.

What is the Intentions to Marry Project?

This project aims to transcribe the New Zealand Intentions to Marry registers (from 1855 to 1925) with the assistance of new technology (AI), making the records freely available and easily searchable.

The ITM records have also been cross-referenced with the registered marriages at DIA Births, Deaths and Marriages, where possible (a small fraction of the recorded intentions to marry did not become a registered marriage).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1908. More registers are being added almost every week.

The project is led by Luke Howison, a web developer who made the free genealogical research search tool NZ Ancestor Search Helper and Archway-style Collections Search. There are also some wonderful volunteers assisting with digitising the registers.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

How is the transcription done?

There are several steps to digitising and transcribing the records:

Digitising the registers (taking clean, straight, high-quality photos)
Processing the digitised pages by straightening, cropping and sharpening the images
Transcribing each page with a combination of AI tools
Matching each ITM with a registered marriage when possible
Human verification of the transcribed information

The main LLM (AI) used are the Google Gemini Pro and Flash models, which have excellent 'Vision' capabilities, and a generous free tier.

Archives NZ has released the register years they have digitised (1865-69, 1872, 1874 and 1880) under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

The Intention to Marry registers (up to 1925) are more than 100 years old, so their Crown Copyright has expired, putting them in the public domain. This also applies to any 'mechanical reproductions' (eg, pictures or photocopies) of their content without substantial alteration.

The transcribed records on this website are released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes, while giving credit to the creator (NZ Intentions to Marry Project).